Consumer trend shows many Americans are “Revenge Saving” in uncertain economic future

CHARLOTTE, NC — A night on the town, has turned into a night on the couch.

“I hate bringing my lunch to work. I hate cooking in. I’m starting to cook in now, 3 or 4 times a week, because just going out and getting something for lunch now is 20 bucks,”

Ian Grimes and many others are putting their finances first by doing what’s being called “Revenge Saving”. It’s a big change from the pandemic times when people were desperate to spend money after the lockdowns were lifted.

“I don’t think saving is a bad thing just because I think the world as we know it has kind of hit a point where it’s like, you really don’t know what’s going to happen next,” said Machi Gibbs.

According to Investopedia, almost 60% of Gen Z and Millenials say saving money is their top priority.

“It’s been hard lately. You know, inflation, high prices, cost fuel, concerns about recessions and everything else. So people have gone to this idea of aggressively saving,” said Alloy Wealth Management CEO, Mark Henry.

Henry says he’s all for the aggressive saving as long as you’re taking care of one thing first.

“I love the idea, if we’ve got the credit cards out of the way,” explained Henry.

A lot has changed and not changed with overall credit in recent weeks. That includes a court decision to keep medical debt on your credit score, before it went into effect and a FICO decision to add “buy now, pay later” to determine how good your credit worthiness. Both moves would impact millions of people. Henry says if you are one of them, pay it as soon as you can.

If you find yourself revenge saving, Henry says a nest egg of about 3-6 months is ideal depending on your job security.